From the category archives:

internet marketing

Why Your Business Should Be Using Google+

by Greg Tirico

    

Are you thinking about incorporating Google+ into your social media strategy but haven’t made the leap yet? There are a few important advantages to participation you need to consider. But first, some background.

What is Google+, really?

For the uninitiated, it’s a social network. For those in the know, it’s a Facebook clone (that’s a tongue-in-cheek comment but it’s partially true). Google is understandably avoiding making any comparisons to existing social networks. If I were forced to do so then Facebook would be the most likely comparison. As you think through both this post and your strategy, Facebook will do if you absolutely need a point of comparison (at least for now).

Something to keep in mind is that Google+ is not +1. They are two separate names to two related but very different things. For those that don’t spend their professional time geeking out on social networks (I do) the terms can be confusing. That’s completely understandable. As discussed above, Google+ is Google’s social network. The +1 is their equivalent of the Facebook Like (to stretch the comparison a bit further). So when you “+1” something you are giving Google a signal that you like the page/link/ad (Yes, you can +1 an ad. Who does that?!!?).

To add further confusion to the understanding of Google+ terminology, Google is now aggregating +1 and Circle activity for business pages. I’m not even going to go there right now (see the footnote for an explanation1). Click to continue…

Making the NSA’s Life a Bit Easier…

by Greg Tirico

    

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UPDATE: Almost 3 years later from the original post below (July, 2008) and AT&T took the lead on location-based shopping alerts in partnership with Placecast.  It took 3 years and AT&T to make this happen?!!?  Really.  Really!  I’m either way off base on the power of location-based marketing or the revenue model just isn’t there yet.

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Security and privacy implications aside (see the NSA reference in the title of this post), July 11th is set to be a day that brings a renewed focus to mobile marketing.  What am I talking about?

  • July 11th is the launch date for the new 3G iPhone.
  • July 11th is also the launch date for the App store in iTunes.

From an internet marketing perspective, you should care about this date even if you do not own an iPhone (only a few million of us do at this point).  You should care because the launch date of this new phone is likely to place a renewed emphasis on the GPS chip that is already in many smart phones today.  I’m not giving Apple credit for putting a GPS chip in a cell phone……hardly……but I am giving them credit for putting the tools required to take true advantage of this functionality in the hands of developers.

Keep your eye on the ball.  Here are a few trends to watch:

Geoblogging: location-aware blogging adds a new layer to one’s posts and comments on the internet.

Location-based Advertising (Are we calling this something else yet?): You are in a new city…….say, Seattle…..and you really want a cup ‘o joe.  Power up the GPS enabled cellphone with Google Maps loaded on it and off you go.  Oh yeah….and Google Adsense will be adopted to provide coupons/discounts to those stores closest to you.  Location based advertising will be HUGE.

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Dictionary.com….no, Answers.com….no, Google.com

by Greg Tirico

    

I commonly run single word queries through Google when seeking formal definitions.  Several years ago, Google started providing direct links to definitions of words via Dictionary.com.  This relationship fizzled but the helpful “definition” link on Google continued to function with a new partner, Answers.com.  I saw an ad today on Google (yes, they commonly run [...]

What Gets Measured, Gets Done

by Greg Tirico

    

eMarketer points out the blindingly obvious to us today in an article titled, “Marketers Need Metrics to Integrate Traditional and Digital Media“. Good for them. If you are not focused on explicitly measuring your internet marketing efforts and tying those efforts back to an actual increase in revenue or reduction in costs then you should [...]

The Easy Button…

by Greg Tirico

    

There is nothing easy about tying your online and offline marketing tactics together.  Do you *really* know that the most recent PPC campaign resulted in those additional real world sales calls?  If you are smart about how you track your metrics then the answer should be, “Absolutely.” Here’s a recent article from Search Engine Watch [...]

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